Ok, it never ceases to amaze me how simple you think doing something can be , only to be puzzled for days trying to fix it.

Using Darkplaces, and found some old alternate armor skins for the std armor.mdl

I wanted to merely add these skins to be skin 3,4 and 5 respectively, and keep the old armor skins in the original. Well, seems I can sub the skins for skin 0,1 and 2 if I rename the files: armor.mdl_0.png , _1 and _2 respectively , essentially placing these skin files in the progs folder where the armor model is located, but trying to make them skins _3 _4 and _5 results in a white skin all the time. Im using (2) pak files for my mod and they both have progs folders , but as I understand, the system will merely override same file names in higher directory structures, and I dont see any duplicates in lower directories such as id1.

The DP extensions file describes "skin groups" such as _A_B which I dont completely understand, but for the most part my naming scheme (armor.mdl_x.png) where "x" is the new skin number seems to work when subbing to the original skin in the mdl file, and I also am doing the same thing where a player model with (8) skins in it, I merely place the new skin files in the same directory as the model, even in a pk3 file, and it works, so am really stumped by this one. Any help appreciated.

I just dbl checked and I have a player.mdl with (8) built in skin slots in the model, and with the external texturing file system I merely place the new skin picture files in the progs folder where the player.mdl is and it renders them fine. (skin 9 and up)

I dont see any empty skin slots in that model...how can it do this for one kind of model and not another?

r00k wrote:your model has to have the extra skin slots baked into iteven if they are 8bit placement holders (ie just white).

Ok Im stil puzzled, but I did what Rook said and I made (10) more duplicate skin slots in the armor model, and now I can apparently sub in new skins ok. I havent tried going past slot 10 yet, but as I said, the player.mdl with 8 skins baked in the mdl accepts new skin files all the way up to 16 and beyond using the external naming scheme. Not sure what the reason is unless you need an "x" number of prebaked skin slots, apparently its > 3 for the tests I have done here.